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Her Secret, His Child
Tara Taylor Quinn
A LITTLE SECRETMother and DaughterJamie Archer loves her four-year-old daughter, Ashley, more than anything in this world. But Jamie has a past she's ashamed of, a past she needs to keep hidden. So she's created an entirely new life for herself and Ashley–a life that's threatened when Kyle Radcliff reappears.Father and ChildKyle doesn't immediately realize who she is, but Jamie recognizes him right away. He's Ashley's father. Even though he doesn't know it….A Family Now?For Ashley's sake, for all their sakes, Jamie has to tell him the truth–something that seems to become harder every day. Because she's falling in love with him. For the second time….
“Where you going, Mommy?” (#ue2cd85ee-be90-51f0-9409-27528f8f7f27)Letter to Reader (#u242dc5fc-def3-52c8-803c-ddf5d2b51bb4)Title Page (#u04c4007e-3046-57b5-a954-929cda7e1ebd)Dedication (#ud5d6b943-19be-5880-9e1e-aaf27c808c67)CHAPTER ONE (#ue4fa9427-c31a-57dd-b604-1da0a7b382d9)CHAPTER TWO (#u3e503acd-c6c8-5e63-8495-3c104314f953)CHAPTER THREE (#u46b380ad-46b2-584a-8469-a41220697670)CHAPTER FOUR (#u088ce391-7c37-5f23-8dd2-6eef04a1cbd8)CHAPTER FIVE (#ud49ddf25-8011-569a-90b3-31b334f7275d)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“Where you going, Mommy?”
Ashley was staring at her mother, big gray eyes wide open. Always observing. Always aware.
“Just to make a phone call,” Jamie told herself as well as the child. It was only a phone call. She’d talk to him, find out what he wanted. How had Kyle Radcliff tracked her down...and why? He didn’t know—couldn’t possibly know—about Ashley.
“Don’t you want to see the movie?” Ashley’s sweet voice was filled with concern. Her thumb stole to her mouth.
“Of course I do, baby!” Jamie said. She rounded the table and knelt down by her daughter’s chair. “I’ll hurry.”
“Okay, Mommy”
Smiling, choking back tears, Jamie leaned forward and kissed Ashley’s cheek.
“Love you, Mommy,” Ashley said without relinquishing her thumb.
“Love you, too, baby”
Jamie fled.
Dear Reader,
Almost everyone is biologically equipped to reproduce. But as miraculous as birth is, the true miracle comes not in the giving of life but in the nurturing of it. No job or other endeavor will ever be more important than the raising up of innocent lives. To have a child completely dependent on you for food and clothing, for safety, for emotional health, for guidance, is an immense responsibility I’ve often thought you can judge people not by how they look or dress, the position they might hold in society, not by education, financial status or geographical location, but by how effective they are as parents.
Unfortunately, good people are sometimes driven by life, by circumstances, by tragedy, to make bad decisions. Yet it seems to me that a bad decision doesn’t necessarily make a bad person. Sometimes, though, a person can be imprisoned by such a decision because our society tends to look only at the surface...tends not to look beyond mistakes and their consequences.
Certainly, accountability is crucial, cost is just, but one of the great beauties of life is the opportunity for second chances. I cling to that promise.
Her Secret, His Child was with me long before I wrote my first book I’m glad to finally have the opportunity to bring you this novel and hope you will join me in celebrating the incredible strength of the human spirit as you share Jamie’s story.
Tara Taylor Quinn
P.S. I’m always delighted to hear from my readers. You can reach me at P.O. Box 15065, Scottsdale, Arizona 85267-5065 or on-line at http://www.iuficad.com/~ttquinn.
Her Secret, His Child
Tara Taylor Quinn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For Rachel. Having you made my life matter.
And for Jane Robson, whose belief in me taught me to
believe in myself.
CHAPTER ONE
“OKAY, BOYS AND GIRLS, we had Christmas in December and New Year’s last week, and we said Valentine’s Day comes in February, St. Patrick’s Day in March and Easter will be in April. Can anyone remember what we celebrate in May?”
Four-year-old Ashley Archer put her hand up as high as possible; she couldn’t wait to answer. The words almost came out of her mouth before Miss Peters called her name, even though that was against the rules. She squirmed in her seat, rising to her knees so Miss Peters would see her.
“Nathan?”
Darn it. Dumb old Nathan didn’t deserve to answer this one.
“Memory Day.”
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Ashley threw her hand up again. I know. I know.
“Memorial Day!” Miss Peters sounded like she just got a Christmas present. “Right!”
Right? That wasn’t it.
The teacher smiled at them. Ashley settled back in her seat, although she kept her arm in the air. She liked it when Miss Peters smiled.
“Memorial Day is when we remember our soldiers who died fighting for our country.”
Hmm. Ashley frowned. Maybe that was where her daddy had gone—maybe he was died from fighting for our country. Maybe that was why Memory Day was special, too.
“There’s another special day,” Miss Peters said. “Does anyone know what it is?”
Please ask me. Ashley waved her hand, just in case Miss Peters couldn’t see it up there.
“Ashley?”
“Mommy’s Day.” Whoosh. There. She’d got it out.
“Right!” Miss Peters smiled again. “Mother’s Day.”
Ashley bobbed in her seat. She’d done it. And she couldn’t wait to tell Mommy. After all, Mommy’s Day was the most special day in the whole wide world. ‘Cause it was all about God giving Ashley to Mommy.
God was really smart, even if He was old. ‘Cause He gave Ashley the best, prettiest mommy in the whole wide world. Miss Peters baby-talked some more and Ashley sank down in her seat, looking at all the other kids to make sure no one saw what she was thinking. She didn’t want them to know that God gave her the best mommy, ’cause that meant theirs weren’t as good and that would be a not-nice thing for them to know.
She also didn’t want to have bad thoughts, in case God might change His mind and give her some other mommy, instead. Like Nathan’s. Yuck.
Staring at one of the bright-red flowers on Miss Peters’s dress, she tried really hard to pay attention.
JUST AFTER TWELVE. Jamie Archer hummed to herself as she pulled into the drive at Ashley’s preschool. This was her favorite time. Her work for the day was done; she’d finished the Worth’s Flower Shop books early and was ready to start on her tax clients the next morning. The rest of the afternoon and evening belonged to Ashley.
Snuggled in her black wool jacket, she faced January’s brisk cold as she raced for the door, eager to collect the girls. Karen Smith, Jamie’s next-door neighbor and closest friend, had chili and crackers waiting at home for them. Karen’s daughter, Kayla, was Ashley’s best friend, car-pool buddy and preschool classmate. The two girls had been inseparable since the day Jamie and Ashley had moved to Larkspur Grove, Colorado, a little town outside Denver, two years before.
Jamie hated to think what would happen if the girls were put in separate classes when they started kindergarten in the fall.
“Mommy!”
Jamie’s heart skipped a happy beat as it always did when she heard her daughter’s voice.
She bent down just in time to catch the little whirlwind who hurled herself into Jamie’s arms. Anyone might think they’d been apart for days rather than the two and a half hours it had actually been. But sometimes these preschool mornings, away from Ashley, felt so much longer to Jamie.
“Hi, punkin, how was school?” she asked.
“Good. I got to answer Mommy’s Day!”
“Good girl!” Jamie gave Ashley one more hug before releasing the child. Even after four years, it was sometimes difficult to believe that this little girl was actually hers.
“Where’s Kayla?” She looked around the huge room filled with miniature furniture and a confusing array of mothers collecting children.
“She had to go potty,” Ashley said, trotting off to get her coat.
“Miss Jamie!”
Jamie turned as she recognized the other little voice in her life, and grabbed Kayla up for a hug. “Did you remember to wipe?” she asked. Kayla was often in too much of a hurry to finish what she started—much to Karen’s chagrin.
“Uh-huh.” Kayla nodded, her blue eyes wide. “Ashley knew Mommy’s Day,” she informed her importantly.
“I heard!” Jamie set the little girl down and helped them both zip up their parkas.
And as she escorted the two young children out into the parking lot, one tiny hand each in each of hers, she listened eagerly to their continuous chatter. There was no job more important, nothing on earth she’d rather be doing.
For the first time since she was Ashley’s age, Jamie had everything she could possibly want.
KAREN RAN our of crackers. A near catastrophe, seeing that Ashley just couldn’t eat chili without crackers. And besides, Kayla had already had five crackers and Ashley had had only three. Not bothering with her coat, Jamie hurried across the yard separating their homes, sure she had a box of saltines in the cupboard.
And saw the light blinking on her answering machine as she ran in the door. Hoping the light meant another client—an answer to the plea she’d sent out via Dr. Patterson, dean of Gunnison University—Jamie pushed the play-back button.
Ashley wanted to take dance lessons. Jamie needed to come up with the extra money to pay for them.
“Hi, Jamie. Kyle Radcliff calling. As of today, I’m the new English professor at Gunnison University. Could you give me a call, please?”
With a shaking hand, Jamie wrote down the number he rattled off. But as she dropped the pencil, the marks she was staring at through glazed eyes were barely legible.
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see. Limbs suddenly weak, she clung to the counter, trying to keep down the portion of lunch she’d managed to eat.
Just like that.
He wanted her to call him.
Just like that. Her life was over.
She’d been found.
DRAWING ON the strength that came with motherhood, Jamie stood upright, forcing herself to breathe deeply, struggling to hold herself together. Ashley needed crackers. Was waiting for her mother to bring them. Jamie reached into the cupboard.
Yes. Just as she’d thought. There was an unopened box. Enough to keep both girls happy for the rest of the meal. Crackers were good. She was glad she had them.
Hugging the box, Jamie walked slowly back across the yard. The icy air didn’t penetrate. She didn’t notice the blue sky or the blinding glare reflecting off snow-covered yards. Ashley was waiting for crackers. Jamie had crackers. That was good.
“Mommy got crackers! Hooray!”
Jamie smiled automatically, holding up the box of crackers for the prize it was, as her daughter’s greeting met her at Karen’s kitchen door.
“Thank goodness.” Karen rolled her eyes dramatically, grinning. She took the box even before Jamie slid into her chair.
“Thank Mommy,” Ashley insisted, her brows creased with the seriousness of her correction.
Jamie’s heart started to shatter.
Divvying up the goods, Karen reminded the girls that as soon as they finished their chili, they could watch The Little Mermaid again. Jamie heard her. Heard the girls’ chorus of hoorays. She looked at her half-eaten bowl of chili. The spoon she knew she should be picking up.
“Something wrong?” Karen’s voice was soft, barely audible beneath the girls’ animated conversation.
“No!” Jamie glanced across at her friend. The only true friend she’d ever had. The woman who didn’t really know her at all. “Why?”
“You don’t look so good.”
“I, uh, just remembered I didn’t return a phone call this morning and I can’t afford to lose any clients.”
“Then go do it. I’ll watch the girls.”
“You sure?”
“Of course! They’ll be wrapped up in Ariel for the next hour anyway. Get out of here!”
She had to go. But she couldn’t leave Ashley. Could barely wait for Ashley to finish eating so she could lift her out of her booster seat and hold the little girl’s chili-smeared face against her. She’d be all right just as soon as she felt Ashley’s arms around her neck.
“Okay, I’ll hurry,” Jamie heard herself say. And stared again into her bowl of chili. It had been good chili.
She was going to have to leave Ashley with Karen. She absolutely could not allow whatever was to come to touch Ashley’s life. Couldn’t bear for Ashley to know...
“Take your time,” Karen said, clearing their bowls from the table.
Jamie stood.
“Where you going, Mommy?”
Ashley was staring at her mother, big gray eyes wide-open. Always observing. Always aware.
“Just to make a phone call,” Jamie told herself as well as the child. “I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t you want to see Ariel?” Ashley’s sweet voice was filled with concern. Her thumb stole to her mouth.
“Of course I do, baby!” Jamie said. She rounded the table and knelt beside her daughter. “I’ll hurry.”
